How are East Indian brass bands, an integral part of the community, staying relevant in changing times?
Valentine Music Makers during rehearsals, with Russel D'Mello sitting on the far right
The world becomes a bit different for us when we turn right into a bylane, just in front of Vidyavihar station, to enter Kirla village around 9 pm on a Tuesday. It's an East Indian gaothan, a place we have never been in before. Narrow streets are lined with mostly two-storey tenements with their doors open, some with women in slacks and T-shirts chatting inside. The men on the streets walking around in shorts don't look as if they are about to go anywhere outside of the gaothan. It seems like a self-contained Christian settlement on the whole, except for some shopkeepers who are clearly non-Catholic, given the religious insignia they bear on their wrists and foreheads. And one of them points us in the direction we are seeking, towards the leader of an East Indian brass band, Russell D'Mello. Or "band-wala Russell", as the locals call him.
ADVERTISEMENT
Navigating the maze of bylanes, we finally find D'Mello in a small park called John Alex Garden, practising with 17 other members of Valentine Music Makers. D'Mello is playing the clarinet and also conducting the rest of the musicians. Apart from four people playing percussion instruments and two jangling the tambourine, all the others are on wind instruments made of brass, such as trumpets and saxophones. Bands like these form an inseparable part of every East Indian occasion, be it weddings, religious and patriotic gatherings, or funerals. And D'Mello formed Valentine Music Makers around 30 years ago. Here, we watch them rehearse what sounds like a procession number, before the men pack up and D'Mello leads us to his home around the corner. There, he spends an hour talking to us about the subject we are trying to explore, which essentially involves three questions.
Russel D'Mello
How do East Indian brass bands stay relevant in modern times to carry their legacy forward? What are some of the problems they are facing? And what role are youngsters playing in keeping this rich community tradition alive? Exploring the last question first, D'Mello tells us that youngsters are getting increasingly alienated. "Young people currently are not that eager to join East Indian brass bands. They are shy," he says, using the word to mean that the youth of today consider it infra dig to be seen in a procession of musicians. "And because of that, we don't have enough East Indian players. So, when I feel that there is a shortage of musicians, I have to get Koli, Agri or other non-Catholic players. And it's the same story all around nowadays. Wherever you see an East Indian band, you'll find that at least 20 to 30 per cent of the playing staff is non-Catholic. But, would we hire them if there were musicians from our own community? We would not," D'Mello adds.
One solution to this predicament, he continues, is to explain to youngsters that joining a brass band would give them an alternative source of income. It's a sentiment that's echoed by Kevin Jacinto, another East Indian musician who plays in a beat band called Eastiria. Jacinto says over the phone, "You mostly see elderly people playing in brass groups these days, just to keep the tradition alive. That is why we are trying to bring all these youngsters back in again. We want to tell them that if they take to music in their free time, it will help them even in their careers."
But the apathy of the youth aside, there are other pressing problems. One of these is cultural. Of all East Indian occasions, weddings more than any other have brass bands as one of the bedrocks of the festivities. The two days on each side of the actual ceremony involve processions where music is essential. But while earlier, brass ensembles were required to play throughout the day of the wedding as well, that isn't the case any longer. This means that the 30 to 40 brass bands that remain in the city of Mumbai have lost out on the playing hours they have on their annual calendar. So, if a lack of youngsters is creating a problem of supply, there is, at the same time, a corollary problem of demand.
And then there is a societal mountain to climb. It involves the very nature of gaothans, which can be considered the factories that produce brass musicians. Gleason Barretto, founder trustee of the Mobai Gaothan Panchayat, tells us that two to three decades earlier, these villages were a lot more homogenous in nature, consisting almost wholly of East Indian families. "Every house had at least one member who could sing, and when we sat outside in the evenings, we would hear musicians practising solo in their homes because the structure of the villages was more open. That made us hum the tunes and develop a liking for them, which eventually influenced some people to learn the music. But today, gaothans are slowly starting to become more vertical, which blocks out the sound of the music. That's affecting the growth of brass bands," he tells us, adding that an influx of outsiders has diminished the hegemony of East Indian households, evidence of which we saw in the shopkeeper who gave us directions.
One thing, however, that every person we speak to agrees on is that brass bands are so ingrained into the community's fabric that as long as Mumbai's distinctive East Indian population survives, the need for these musicians is not going to disappear. The last census taken two years ago, Barretto tells us, pegged the number of East Indians, including in the Vasai area, at 5 lakh people. So when weddings are held even 20 to 30 years later, D'Mello says, bands like Valentine Music Makers will still have their services required. But will there be enough of them to cater for the entire season, and also for other occasions like funerals, where the nature of the music is more mournful? The answer to that question, in all practicality, rests squarely on the shoulders of East Indian youngsters. It's up to them to ensure that they never press the stop button on a musical legacy that's sustained for over 100 years.
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
